It takes something else, a noise, an onomatopoetic guttural sound. It’s that grawlix, the comic-book cursing that’s unintelligible and can only be spelled in question marks, ampersands and pound signs. It’s that Chicago “ope!” you involuntarily make as Corey Crawford and Jonathan Quick turn aside back-to-back end-to-end scoring chances. It’s that reflexive pounding of a table in response to yet another brilliant Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad tandem rush in a game in which you don’t even have a rooting interest.

For those who were at the United Center on May 28, 2014, nearly five years ago now, the 20 minutes of overtime in Game 5 of the Western Conference final between the Blackhawks and the Kings — a 20-minute period...